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Samsung and Apple getting huffy about old pictures

The high-stakes patent trial between the tech titans continues in San Jose and Samsung appears to be having something of a rough time of it. Judge Lucy Koh has denied Samsung’s attempt to admit into evidence what it says are drawings of a smartphone the company was working on back in 2006, a year before Apple announced the iPhone. It was Samsung’s third attempt to allow the drawings into evidence but Koh said the lawyers simply hadn’t gotten the evidence in on time. Rules are rules, you know? From The Washington Post:

Samsung said in an e-mailed statement that Koh’s ruling means “Samsung was not allowed to tell the jury the full story and show the pre-iPhone design for that and other phones that were in development at Samsung in 2006, before the iPhone.”“The excluded evidence would have established beyond doubt that Samsung did not copy the iPhone design,” the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in the statement.

Thing is, Samsung went ahead and released the drawings to the public, arguing that the drawings were submitted to public record in the past and that it wanted the public to know the whole story. Apple is saying that this is dirty pool rising to the level of contempt of court.

About the author

John Moe is the host of Marketplace Tech Report, where he provides an insightful overview of the latest tech news.